


Unspoken Words

by talonyth



Category: Karneval
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:25:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talonyth/pseuds/talonyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On certain days when Akari entered his room, he would find a single flower on his desk and he learned that words don't have to be said out aloud to be heard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unspoken Words

On certain days when Akari entered his room, he would find a single flower on his desk. He wasn’t really a flower person, couldn’t keep them well despite being a doctor. He figured he just didn’t have the time for them. Besides, he wasn’t keen on decorations anyway.

These certain days, they were days when he was more stressed, more rugged than usually, when something happened, when he had a difficult surgery, when he had to solve a problem that seemed to be unsolvable, or when Yogi came to the Research Tower. A general mix of days when he felt more tired when he returned, when all he wanted was to sleep.

He didn’t really pay any attention to the flowers, he would always take them, and give them water, that much he knew, but he forgot them eventually and when he looked after them again, they would have already withered.

Just a coincidence, that once he listened to the nurses speak, he usually didn’t but they were so obnoxiously loud that it was unbearable.

"I’ve read this book about flower language just yesterday, it was really interesting!"

"Really?… I wonder if anyone still knows about that. I mean, doesn’t it sound a bit old-fashioned? Speaking through flowers?"

"I think it sounds really romantic! …Maybe that would be a way to soften a certain someone’s heart?"

"…I don’t think so. I bet he’s the type to throw flowers away, anyways."

"You are not mistaken there" Akari said calmly. He knew it had been adressed to him, to who else anyway.

"Ah, Doctor, sorry, we—-"

"If you would save your chit-chat, I would be very grateful. Please return to your positions."

Both nodded and went their way, leaving Akari lost in thoughts. Were flowers a way to express words that could not be spoken? It was a quite ridiculous thought but he decided to try it anyway. The library had some books on that topic and he decided to borrow one or two to see whether the flowers in his room had a meaning or were a simple token of encouragement.

As soon as he returned to his room, there was another flower which surprised Akari slightly. The day had been fairly quiet, except for the visit of both the First and Second Ship Captains, but in another department anyway which Akari welcomed. Both Captains weren’t good for his nerves and he was grateful not having to deal with them.

He looked at the flower and at least recognized it. It was a primrose, and it striked Akari as curious to get a primrose around this time of the year. When he lifted it up, he saw another flower. A daffodil, in the brightest yellow. How odd, he never got two flowers a day.

Yet before he could overthink it too much, he decided to see what other flowers he had gotten on days before. He turned his head to see that some of the former flowers had not yet withered. He recognized an azalea, a bouquet of daisies, an almost dead gardenia (which had been fine just hours ago, or so he swore) and a red rose. All the flowers he had ever gotten, even though the first few he got of each type had already died. Except… for white poppies. He remembered that at the beginning he often got white poppies, but it had been months ever since the poppies stopped appearing and were replaced by other flowers.

Before he had a chance to look up what they meant, someone knocked at the door.

"Come in" Akari said and put both books next to the flowers before standing up.

"Good day, Doctor Akari."

Hirato entered the room and bowed down deeply before showing his everlasting, ever-mocking smile to Akari.

"What do you want? I thought you had business in the Mechanics Department."

"I thought I’d drop by to greet you. You might get lonely, after all."

"Thank you for your worries, but I can handle things by myself very well."

Akari noticed that Hirato’s eyes were wandering around the room, they always were. He was, although he would never admit it, amazed at the man’s ability to scan his surroundings so thoroughly in such a short time.

"Flowers? You never striked me as the type to have flowers in his room."

"They were presents. For your interest, I am, indeed, not much of a flowers person."

"I know that, I know that. What a delicate selection, if I might say, though. They all stand, in a way or another, for a way to show love."

At his words, Akari was surprised. There was, after all, a person who could tell so quickly what a flower meant?

"You know, in earlier times, flowers were a way to express hidden emotions. Not only that, but the colours of the flowers also gave them a different meaning. For example… a red rose, like you got, means love and respect, but if you get a yellow rose, it means someone might be jealous of you."

"How do you know all this?"

Hirato shrugged and smiled. “I know a lot of things, Doctor. But it seems like you are studying on this subject too.”

Akari turned his head to where Hirato looked at and noticed the books.

"I was just wondering whether these flowers had a meaning or not. I have been getting these for a good while now. It sparked my curiousity, if you want to put it that way."  
"Ah, well, no surprise, really. Have you figured out their exact meaning yet?"

"No, not yet."

Without asking if it was necessary, Hirato took two steps forward and touched the half-dead gardenia.

"This one stands for a secret love. I guess you might have someone who can’t tell you."

"I figured as much. If they could, they wouldn’t send me flowers."

Hirato chuckled and continued by tapping his fingers on the petal of a daisy out of the bouquet.

"Daisies mean a loyal and innocent love, but they can also stand for the phrase ‘I will never tell’. It fits, then."

"Yes, it does. …I am still surprised at this… skill of yours."

Ignoring Akari’s comment, Hirato continued by gently touching a petal of the azalea.

"An azalea is given when a person overworks himself a lot, it is meant to say something like ‘Take care of yourself’ or something along the lines. It is also a sign for a faint and fragile passion."

While almost deaf to what the flowers meant, everything Akari focused on was Hirato’s voice. It sounded so tender, so unusual for him. He never spoke in such a tone with him and he didn’t know whether to feel lucky not having to endure or to be startled. It seemed so unnatural. Either Hirato had a passion for the flower language or…

"I am not surprised you would get something like this. You do tend to overdo it."

"This is nothing I want to hear from you."

Hirato laughed, almost cheerful which added to Akari’s suspicion but continued quickly after.

"I told you what a red rose means, right? I am quite certain that you knew the meaning before I told you, too."

"Yes, I did. It is, frankly, the most frequent flower lately."

"Is it? It seems like someone starts to become more courageous, then. Opposed to the gardenia and the daisy, a red rose expresses love and longing, both at the same time. Seems like the passion isn’t all that fragile anymore."

"There are two more flowers. I found them when I came back from the library."

Hirato looked at the table and Akari swore that for a moment he could see a different expression on Hirato’s face than usually. For an instant, the Captain seemed to have lost his smile but Akari questioned whether he imagined it or not because when he raised his voice to speak again, the smirk was right where it belonged.

"A primrose… it means ‘I can’t live without you’. But a daffodil stands for an unrequited love. To me it seems like the person who gave you these gave up on you."

"How so? Because they believe I do not share their feelings?"

"Perhaps they realized you don’t look at the flowers, or perhaps they thought you threw them away."

The doctor didn’t know whether Hirato just played the melancholy or if it was actually how he felt. Akari could never tell what Hirato was feeling, not once ever since he had known him. On a whim, and it was a first because he never did things on impulse, Akari raised his assumption.

"Perhaps it was a person who saw them withering."

Hirato smiled and crossed his arms. “So, are you thinking of someone specific there? Is there a person who frequently visits your room?”

"Apparently the person who places the flowers, obviously. They must have seen the former flowers wither because I lack the time to take care of them."

"What a misunderstanding, then. Are you saying, you might have fallen for that person or why are you trying to justify this, now?"

"Perhaps… I have figured out who the person is" Akari said and directed his gaze at Hirato for a second until he looked away. He picked the daffodil off the table and threw it into a bin close to his feet.

"How cruel, Akari."

"Same to you."

"How so?"

"Trampling on your own feelings like this. It does not really seem like you to lower your own self so much."

For the first time ever since he knew Hirato, the man looked away, still smiling but oddly composed. He never lost his temper and Akari didn’t expect that either but for him to stay quiet rather than to comment snarkily was a novum.

"I will take my leave then."

Instead of objecting, Akari didn’t say anything. He looked at the flowers, at each one of them equally, and somehow something within him started hurting and itching. What a hideous feeling.

"Take them with you" the doctor insisted right before Hirato disappeared through the door.

"Why should I do that? Are you afraid that they are going to wither again?"

"I could not care less about them withering, to be frank. Yet each flower bears a meaning, you said so yourself. I—"

"They belong to you. You are not supposed to return a present back to its sender. It brings bad luck. Do as you please, they are yours. Good day" Hirato said and closed the door behind him.

Just days after, the Captain found a tiny bush of Ambrosias on his desk. What a terrible choice if it went for how they looked. Yet it brought an honest smile to his lips when he thought about what they meant when given to someone else.

“‘I return your feelings’. How sly, using my own weapons against me.”

He moved it from his desk to a window closeby and gave it water. He wouldn’t let it wither as easily as that, he had to cherish it for as long as he could.


End file.
